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Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA
World War II commando, Cold War spy, and CIA director under presidents Nixon and Ford, William Egan Colby played a critical role in some of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century. A quintessential member of the greatest generation, Colby embodied the moral and strategic ambiguities of the postwar world, and first confronted many of the dilemmas about power and secrecy that America still grapples with today. In Shadow Warrior, eminent historian Randall B. Woods presents a riveting biography of Colby, revealing that this crusader for global democracy was also drawn to the darker side of American power. Aiming to help reverse the spread of totalitarianism in Europe and Asia, Colby joined the U.S. Army in 1941, just as America entered World War II. He served with distinction in France and Norway, and at the end of the war transitioned into America's first peacetime intelligence the CIA. Fresh from the fight against fascism, Colby zealously redirected his efforts against international communism. He insisted on the importance of fighting communism on the ground, doggedly applying guerilla tactics for counterinsurgency, sabotage, surveillance, and information-gathering on the new battlefields of the Cold War. Over time, these strategies became increasingly ruthless; as head of the CIA's Far East Division, Colby oversaw an endless succession of assassination attempts, coups, secret wars in Laos and Cambodia, and the Phoenix Program, in which 20,000 civilian supporters of the Vietcong were killed. Colby ultimately came clean about many of the CIA's illegal activities, making public a set of internal reports -- known as the "family jewels" -- that haunt the agency to this day. Ostracized from the intelligence community, he died under suspicious circumstances -- a murky ending to a life lived in the shadows. Drawing on multiple new sources, including interviews with members of Colby's family, Woods has crafted a gripping biography of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures of the twentieth century.
579 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 30, 2020
This book was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a boring monograph or at most a John le Carre reprise. This book was neither. It was in fact a well balanced biography about an unassuming CIA asset and his career. I found the scenes about Vietnam to be especially poignant and compelling. The author ended the book where it began; with the mysterious disappearance of William Egan Colby. A terrific late summer/early autumn read.
October 21, 2019
At the end of this book, the author credits John Prados, and specifically the latter's earlier biography of the same subject, Lost Crusader: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby, with "pav[ing] the way for this book. His superb research allowed me to start the project at a much more advanced stage than would otherwise have been possible.". This did not surprise me, since it was quite obvious throughout this book that Mr. Woods was relying heavily on the work of Mr. Prados. Mr. Woods may well be an excellent professor; I wouldn't know, having never attended a class he taught or, in fact, even heard of him at all prior to the publication of this book. It is made abundantly clear, throughout this book, that Mr. Woods both disagrees with many of the late Mr. Colby's choices and decisions during his career in government service, and also apparently dislikes him as an individual. Mr. Woods frequently takes the liberty of making disparaging comments about Mr. Colby at various points in the narrative. I don't know if the two men ever met, but I very much doubt it. In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to state for the record that I do not share this author's obvious disapproval & dislike of his subject. As a matter of fact, William E. Colby was a childhood hero of mine, and now that I am well into middle age he remains one of the very few public figures of the last half-century for whom I still have the utmost respect. Indeed, it was in emulation of Mr. Colby that I decided, roughly twenty years ago, to develop a secondary area of specialisation in the politico-military history of the Middle East, concentrating on the Levant (in addition to Indo-China, my primary area of study & interest, which has necessarily included a great deal of reading also in the areas of general military history since WWII, the wars of colonisation & decolonisation, insurgency/counter-insurgency, etc.).
I certainly don't expect, much less require, that the authors of books I read share my opinions and/or outlook on political or historical questions and/or the world in general. I do, however, expect that anyone qualified to hold the honourable title of "Professor" will adhere to the highest possible standards of scholarship. I have been forced in recent years to relax my level of intolerance for typographical & spelling errors due to a general decline in the competence of editors and proof-readers; in an era when even the front page of the New York Times is on occasion riddled with such errors, it would be ridiculous to hold anyone to a higher standard. Any individual who would do so is both a pedant and most likely an insufferable prick as well. Having said that, however, I absolutely refuse to lower my standards to the point which would render admissible actual errors of fact. This book is not by any means riddled with such errors, but even one is too much and inevitably calls into question the entire work. As a general rule, if I recognise in a scholarly work an error of fact off the top of my head, even before I check other sources, the author in question has fucked up pretty badly. I am for all intents and purposes a true auto-didact, with practically no formal education. To be quite blunt, the only reason I even possess a high school diploma is that a sympathetic school administrator at the last of the three high schools I attended made the decision to interpret my school records in a somewhat creative, though technically legal way. In the case of this particular book, the author's carelessness (or perhaps intellectual arrogance) is compounded by his using the notorious lunatic conspiracy theorist L. Fletcher Prouty as a source without indicating that there are very serious doubts about both his credibility and his integrity. This is made even worse by the fact that Prouty's name only appears in the notes at the end of the book. I have met very few individuals who scrupulously check foot-notes, much less end-notes, as a matter of course while reading a book, and cases like this tend to leave the impression that the author hopes no-one will notice that there are any difficulties with cited sources.
The main issue I have with this book is not even the sloppy scholarship, but rather the distinct impression I had while reading it that Mr. Woods considers Mr. Colby to have been at best an amoral, cold-blooded and callous bureaucrat who was blinded by patriotism and his own moral failings (very much like the "Alden Pyle" character in Graham Greene's The Quiet American; a charge which has also often been leveled at his contemporary and occasional colleague, Edward Geary Lansdale), and at worst a war criminal & abettor of murder. I adamantly and vehemently disagree with both characterisations, and I do not believe either one to be supported by the historical record.
I cannot, for the reasons stated above, whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone. It is worth reading (at least as much as, perhaps even more than, the earlier work by Mr. Prados), but I would suggest that it is advisable to read both Mr. Colby's own memoirs (Honorable Men: My Life In The CIA & Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam) and also to at least develop a general understanding of the history of the cold war era, particularly as pertaining to the role of the C.I.A., and even more importantly the history of U.S. involvement in the countries of former French Indo-China specifically, and South-East Asia generally after the Second World War. If that is not possible beforehand, one might simply wish to take the facts and conclusions stated in this work with, as the saying goes, a grain of salt...
In case anyone is interested, I am personally of the opinion that the circumstances of Mr. Colby's death were extremely suspicious. There are far too many unanswered questions and unexplained discrepancies surrounding both his death and the ensuing investigation thereof, and I tend to agree with the conclusions, limited though they are, reached by Zalin Grant. Mr. Grant was a longtime friendly acquaintance of Mr. Colby, and carried out his own quite thorough investigation of the latter's mysterious demise, which you can read about here: (http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/c...).
I certainly don't expect, much less require, that the authors of books I read share my opinions and/or outlook on political or historical questions and/or the world in general. I do, however, expect that anyone qualified to hold the honourable title of "Professor" will adhere to the highest possible standards of scholarship. I have been forced in recent years to relax my level of intolerance for typographical & spelling errors due to a general decline in the competence of editors and proof-readers; in an era when even the front page of the New York Times is on occasion riddled with such errors, it would be ridiculous to hold anyone to a higher standard. Any individual who would do so is both a pedant and most likely an insufferable prick as well. Having said that, however, I absolutely refuse to lower my standards to the point which would render admissible actual errors of fact. This book is not by any means riddled with such errors, but even one is too much and inevitably calls into question the entire work. As a general rule, if I recognise in a scholarly work an error of fact off the top of my head, even before I check other sources, the author in question has fucked up pretty badly. I am for all intents and purposes a true auto-didact, with practically no formal education. To be quite blunt, the only reason I even possess a high school diploma is that a sympathetic school administrator at the last of the three high schools I attended made the decision to interpret my school records in a somewhat creative, though technically legal way. In the case of this particular book, the author's carelessness (or perhaps intellectual arrogance) is compounded by his using the notorious lunatic conspiracy theorist L. Fletcher Prouty as a source without indicating that there are very serious doubts about both his credibility and his integrity. This is made even worse by the fact that Prouty's name only appears in the notes at the end of the book. I have met very few individuals who scrupulously check foot-notes, much less end-notes, as a matter of course while reading a book, and cases like this tend to leave the impression that the author hopes no-one will notice that there are any difficulties with cited sources.
The main issue I have with this book is not even the sloppy scholarship, but rather the distinct impression I had while reading it that Mr. Woods considers Mr. Colby to have been at best an amoral, cold-blooded and callous bureaucrat who was blinded by patriotism and his own moral failings (very much like the "Alden Pyle" character in Graham Greene's The Quiet American; a charge which has also often been leveled at his contemporary and occasional colleague, Edward Geary Lansdale), and at worst a war criminal & abettor of murder. I adamantly and vehemently disagree with both characterisations, and I do not believe either one to be supported by the historical record.
I cannot, for the reasons stated above, whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone. It is worth reading (at least as much as, perhaps even more than, the earlier work by Mr. Prados), but I would suggest that it is advisable to read both Mr. Colby's own memoirs (Honorable Men: My Life In The CIA & Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam) and also to at least develop a general understanding of the history of the cold war era, particularly as pertaining to the role of the C.I.A., and even more importantly the history of U.S. involvement in the countries of former French Indo-China specifically, and South-East Asia generally after the Second World War. If that is not possible beforehand, one might simply wish to take the facts and conclusions stated in this work with, as the saying goes, a grain of salt...
In case anyone is interested, I am personally of the opinion that the circumstances of Mr. Colby's death were extremely suspicious. There are far too many unanswered questions and unexplained discrepancies surrounding both his death and the ensuing investigation thereof, and I tend to agree with the conclusions, limited though they are, reached by Zalin Grant. Mr. Grant was a longtime friendly acquaintance of Mr. Colby, and carried out his own quite thorough investigation of the latter's mysterious demise, which you can read about here: (http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/c...).
August 13, 2023
This is both a biography of one-time DCI (under Nixon and Ford) William Colby and a history of the events he was a part of from his work in the OSS (in Norway) during the war, through CIA interference in foreign elections (Italy and Chile) and wars (Vietnam especially). It ends with the revelations of CIAs 'family jewels' (the aforementioned, plus assassinations, MKULTRA, Watergate and other illegalities), his retirement and apparent assassination in 1996.
What makes this figure particularly interesting is that he was a liberal Cold Warrior. A Roosevelt Democrat, Colby, while eschewing communists, favored outreach to democratic socialists. He therefore stood somewhere between the positions of the domestic New Left of the sixties and the conservative, internationalist hawks. In Vietnam, he favored 'nation building', 'winning hearts and minds', while opposing the American military's mindset of 'body counts' and overwhelming force. Yet he was also substantially responsible for the Phoenix program which, to his dismay, came to be characterized by assassinations and torture performed under its aegis.
What makes this figure particularly interesting is that he was a liberal Cold Warrior. A Roosevelt Democrat, Colby, while eschewing communists, favored outreach to democratic socialists. He therefore stood somewhere between the positions of the domestic New Left of the sixties and the conservative, internationalist hawks. In Vietnam, he favored 'nation building', 'winning hearts and minds', while opposing the American military's mindset of 'body counts' and overwhelming force. Yet he was also substantially responsible for the Phoenix program which, to his dismay, came to be characterized by assassinations and torture performed under its aegis.
July 7, 2017
Engrossing and eyeopening, this book provides a lot of insight into the subtler dynamics of the Vietnam War and of the interplay of the various personalities involved in the Nixon and Ford administrations. It makes a good complement to the Operation Gladio book I read about the CIA-trained "stay-behind" units in Europe, in which Colby was somewhat involved. I would like to now read a book about CIA Director William Casey, who comes in toward the end of the book, and presided over an re-invigoration of covert operations during the Reagan administration.
June 27, 2017
A strong, favorable but critical and nuanced biography of Colby. The parts on his private life, childhood, etc. are relatively brief. The vast majority of the book deals with Colby’s intelligence career, and I felt that Woods gave all aspects of it excellent treatment.
Although the CIA is, I think, mainly identified with its mission of collecting intelligence, it was always intended to be a covert-operations outfit. The 1947 National Security Act assigned the CIA to advise the National Security Council on intelligence, make recommendations on such matters, produce intelligence estimates and reports, and to perform “such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct.” This vague language would be used as as the rationale for the legality of the Agency’s subsequent covert operations, few of which were related to intelligence and almost all of which brought up controversy, leaked to outsiders, and called the Agency’s mission into question. Every president since Truman has utilized covert action, always with mixed results. I don’t think covert action is a substitute for policy, nor should policymakers view it as such. If successful, covert operations have short-term impacts; if they are failures their impact is long-term. Viewing such action as an automatic component of overt policy is quite perilous, as history has shown. No covert operations the CIA ever undertook caused vibrant pro-American democracies to bloom, despite illusions that they do.
With this background in mind, Colby’s time with the CIA was associated mostly with covert operations as opposed to intelligence collection (which is as iffy as covert operations). Woods shows how covert operations actually comprised most of Colby’s career. He served in the OSS performing such operations in World War Two, and went on to do so at the CIA. His time at the Agency confronted him with a dilemma that every Cold Warrior confronted: if you try to fight the enemy with his own weapons, do you become as “bad” as him? It doesn’t seem like Colby was troubled by this dilemma very much. Many of his CIA colleagues went down in flames trying to resolve it: James Jesus Angleton (whom Colby fired) was driven to paranoia in his quest to root out supposed KGB moles, and the fiercely driven covert-action cowboy Frank Wisner suffered a breakdown and eventually committed suicide. Colby, on the other hand, seemed to remain a sort of Boy Scout, and seemed remarkably able to retain his own sanity and grasp of reality.
Woods also shows how Cold War policies changed over time. Our policy interests were not rooted in broadly agreed doctrine. Our thinking, rationale, policies, and strategies changed over time, as did the CIA’s relation to them. Some were simply the result of shifting political power among the advocates of different Cold War strategies. Woods occasionally shifts from a straightforward presentation of Mr. Colby’s views on these subjects and those with whom he agreed or disagreed to what appears to be the author’s own endorsement of one or another of those views. A careful reading of the sources cited on those few occasions suggests some bias, but I doubt it was intentional, and does not hamper an excellent book.
Woods also writes of the suspicious circumstances surrounding Colby’s death, and seems to advocate conspiracy theories that Colby was murdered. This part was a little tedious and his theories were, in my opinion, baseless.
A few errors: Colby's father was involved with the 24th Infantry Regiment not "division." President Nixon and Henry Kissinger had the Office of National Estimates (ONE) and its Board of National Estimates disestablished to be replaced by the politically controlled National Intelligence Council (NIC). Colby did create the positions of National Intelligence Officers (NIO), but not as a replacement for the ONE.
However, Woods does a good job casting light into the secretive, shadowy atmosphere of the early Cold War CIA, provides us with an excellent portrait of Colby, and, in all, has written an excellent book on both subjects.
Although the CIA is, I think, mainly identified with its mission of collecting intelligence, it was always intended to be a covert-operations outfit. The 1947 National Security Act assigned the CIA to advise the National Security Council on intelligence, make recommendations on such matters, produce intelligence estimates and reports, and to perform “such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct.” This vague language would be used as as the rationale for the legality of the Agency’s subsequent covert operations, few of which were related to intelligence and almost all of which brought up controversy, leaked to outsiders, and called the Agency’s mission into question. Every president since Truman has utilized covert action, always with mixed results. I don’t think covert action is a substitute for policy, nor should policymakers view it as such. If successful, covert operations have short-term impacts; if they are failures their impact is long-term. Viewing such action as an automatic component of overt policy is quite perilous, as history has shown. No covert operations the CIA ever undertook caused vibrant pro-American democracies to bloom, despite illusions that they do.
With this background in mind, Colby’s time with the CIA was associated mostly with covert operations as opposed to intelligence collection (which is as iffy as covert operations). Woods shows how covert operations actually comprised most of Colby’s career. He served in the OSS performing such operations in World War Two, and went on to do so at the CIA. His time at the Agency confronted him with a dilemma that every Cold Warrior confronted: if you try to fight the enemy with his own weapons, do you become as “bad” as him? It doesn’t seem like Colby was troubled by this dilemma very much. Many of his CIA colleagues went down in flames trying to resolve it: James Jesus Angleton (whom Colby fired) was driven to paranoia in his quest to root out supposed KGB moles, and the fiercely driven covert-action cowboy Frank Wisner suffered a breakdown and eventually committed suicide. Colby, on the other hand, seemed to remain a sort of Boy Scout, and seemed remarkably able to retain his own sanity and grasp of reality.
Woods also shows how Cold War policies changed over time. Our policy interests were not rooted in broadly agreed doctrine. Our thinking, rationale, policies, and strategies changed over time, as did the CIA’s relation to them. Some were simply the result of shifting political power among the advocates of different Cold War strategies. Woods occasionally shifts from a straightforward presentation of Mr. Colby’s views on these subjects and those with whom he agreed or disagreed to what appears to be the author’s own endorsement of one or another of those views. A careful reading of the sources cited on those few occasions suggests some bias, but I doubt it was intentional, and does not hamper an excellent book.
Woods also writes of the suspicious circumstances surrounding Colby’s death, and seems to advocate conspiracy theories that Colby was murdered. This part was a little tedious and his theories were, in my opinion, baseless.
A few errors: Colby's father was involved with the 24th Infantry Regiment not "division." President Nixon and Henry Kissinger had the Office of National Estimates (ONE) and its Board of National Estimates disestablished to be replaced by the politically controlled National Intelligence Council (NIC). Colby did create the positions of National Intelligence Officers (NIO), but not as a replacement for the ONE.
However, Woods does a good job casting light into the secretive, shadowy atmosphere of the early Cold War CIA, provides us with an excellent portrait of Colby, and, in all, has written an excellent book on both subjects.
September 1, 2013
I had heard and read various profiles of William Colby but until delving into this superb biography, I had no idea the life - no, really the many, many lives - Colby had lived. A highly complicated man, he fought the Nazis, the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese and ultimately, the Soviets around the world. And there was virtually nobody more deeply engaged in the fight for so long in Vietnam. A family man and a supposedly devout Catholic, he turned out at the end to be really neither. He was as strongly anti-communist yet he was also a committed liberal Democrat who strongly supported the anti-nuclear efforts in the 1980's. And his death was the final contradiction - and mystery. Randall Woods has done a great job researching this book. It is a great read and highly recommend it.
July 5, 2013
Colby is a fascinating figure: he fought behind enemy lines in WWII and went on to become one of the CIA's foremost practitioners of covert operations, including heading up the notorious Phoenix program in South Vietnam. Yet, Colby was also a liberal and as head of the CIA in the 1970s he helped reform the agency to overcome past abuses and make it more open and accountable. In many ways Colby is metaphor for Cold War liberalism, with its successes and failures, its lofty principles and its expedient compromises.
October 29, 2017
This is a fact filled biography of William Colby that brings back a lot of bad memories from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Woods gives a balanced portrayal of the times and the man, but it still comes across as faintly “eww.” Part of the problem is that there are no good guys. They are all “true believers”, on the make, power hungry or stupid. Reading about investigations of anti-war protesters in the 70s at the same time 82 Senators are asking that pipeline protesters should be treated as terrorists in 2017 is just scary. One of the reasons to study history is to not make the same mistakes over and over.
August 8, 2017
Good book about an important figure in American intelligence operations. I quite enjoyed the influence of personalities on operations and strategies. It kind of dispels the myth of supernatural capabilities of the people in the intelligence community. Nice to have a reminder that even the most bizarre people aren't much different than the rest of us.
October 28, 2020
Good book with lots of great information on Bill Colby. Unfortunately, the author depends heavily on the autobiographical works of his subject, Bill Colby. A more balanced and objective view would have been preferred.
October 16, 2019
I gave up on this one. Very heavy on government policy and I'm not interested in that.
March 17, 2023
Too much stuff on Nam but picks up steam towards end.
April 19, 2015
I have rarely been so glad to have been done with an audiobook as I was with this one.
Published in 2013 by Post Hypnotic Press
Narrated by Michael Puttonen
Duration: 21 hours, 56 minutes
William Egan Colby was present at the beginnings of the CIA and served as an inserted commando with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in both France and Norway during World War II, pioneering the kind of action he advocated for during his years in the CIA.
The beginning of this audiobook is excellent as it details Colby's life and his World War II exploits. But, as it transitions from World War II to the early years of the Cold War to the Vietnam War the book becomes bogged down, especially in the endless detail about the politics of South Vietnam. Clearly, the Vietnam War was a pivot point for America and for Colby so it should be stressed. However, hours and hours of details about the governing elite of the doomed country were simply tedious.
Colby moves back to America and into the halls of power in the CIA just as the Watergate Crisis is starting to break. America's faith in government was at a low point and people were starting to ask if the CIA should be restrained. Colby had worked his way up to be the Director of the CIA. Colby was as honest as he could be and still keep the CIA open and running as an effective intelligence and counter-intelligence unit. But, once again, the forward momentum of the book is swamped with details.
Look, I am a high school history teacher. I love history. But, I have rarely been so glad to have done with an audiobook as I was with this one. Making it worse, the reader, Michael Puttonnen insisted on reading quotes from different politicians of the 1960s and 1970s with in an impersonated voice. His LBJ was subtle, but his Nixon and Kissinger voices were not very good and I found them to be distracting.
I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. I cannot rate it 1 star because I did learn a few things along the way.
Note: I was sent a free copy of the mp3 CD audiobook by the publisher in exchange for a fair review.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
Published in 2013 by Post Hypnotic Press
Narrated by Michael Puttonen
Duration: 21 hours, 56 minutes
William Egan Colby was present at the beginnings of the CIA and served as an inserted commando with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in both France and Norway during World War II, pioneering the kind of action he advocated for during his years in the CIA.
The beginning of this audiobook is excellent as it details Colby's life and his World War II exploits. But, as it transitions from World War II to the early years of the Cold War to the Vietnam War the book becomes bogged down, especially in the endless detail about the politics of South Vietnam. Clearly, the Vietnam War was a pivot point for America and for Colby so it should be stressed. However, hours and hours of details about the governing elite of the doomed country were simply tedious.
Colby moves back to America and into the halls of power in the CIA just as the Watergate Crisis is starting to break. America's faith in government was at a low point and people were starting to ask if the CIA should be restrained. Colby had worked his way up to be the Director of the CIA. Colby was as honest as he could be and still keep the CIA open and running as an effective intelligence and counter-intelligence unit. But, once again, the forward momentum of the book is swamped with details.
Look, I am a high school history teacher. I love history. But, I have rarely been so glad to have done with an audiobook as I was with this one. Making it worse, the reader, Michael Puttonnen insisted on reading quotes from different politicians of the 1960s and 1970s with in an impersonated voice. His LBJ was subtle, but his Nixon and Kissinger voices were not very good and I found them to be distracting.
I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. I cannot rate it 1 star because I did learn a few things along the way.
Note: I was sent a free copy of the mp3 CD audiobook by the publisher in exchange for a fair review.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
August 24, 2013
Despite painting the book as a mere biography of CIA Director William Egan Colby, Randall B. Woods gives a strikingly humanizing account of the birth of America's modern intelligence apparatus in Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA.
After a brief biopic featuring the Colby family, the title begins in earnest during WWII, illustrating the necessity of a smart, responsive -and most importantly- clandestine civilian intelligence program in the wake of similarly-structured Axis organizations. The timing of this is to your benefit, because in its most gripping chapters, the book plays out like an action-packed radio serial.
From the OSS-backed Operation Jedburgh, in which allied guerrillas and saboteurs peppered themselves across the French and Belgian countryside, to the American wooing of Europe's radical left in Italy -complete with the involvement of beautiful film stars and soviet apparatchiks- to America's secret wars in Vietnam, in which CIA operatives raised and armed an anti-Communist territorial defense force among Vietnam's Montagnards, Shadow Warrior is a thrilling glimpse into the inner mechanizations of the most polarizing institution of the twentieth century.
The book unfortunately suffers from a sluggish midsection, especially during its pedantic treatment of the Family Jewels leaks of the late 1970s. Analysis of a top-down leak which, as of 2007, had not been fully declassified, should have been a page turner, but you find yourself almost racing to the next chapter. The book bars no holds in defending "the former Jedburgh's" mindset in his numerous clashes with movers and shakers within the intelligence community. This could be considered a mild partisanship on Woods' part, but in spite of these few complaints, Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA ticks all the boxes of a strong, exhaustively-researched historical biography.
After a brief biopic featuring the Colby family, the title begins in earnest during WWII, illustrating the necessity of a smart, responsive -and most importantly- clandestine civilian intelligence program in the wake of similarly-structured Axis organizations. The timing of this is to your benefit, because in its most gripping chapters, the book plays out like an action-packed radio serial.
From the OSS-backed Operation Jedburgh, in which allied guerrillas and saboteurs peppered themselves across the French and Belgian countryside, to the American wooing of Europe's radical left in Italy -complete with the involvement of beautiful film stars and soviet apparatchiks- to America's secret wars in Vietnam, in which CIA operatives raised and armed an anti-Communist territorial defense force among Vietnam's Montagnards, Shadow Warrior is a thrilling glimpse into the inner mechanizations of the most polarizing institution of the twentieth century.
The book unfortunately suffers from a sluggish midsection, especially during its pedantic treatment of the Family Jewels leaks of the late 1970s. Analysis of a top-down leak which, as of 2007, had not been fully declassified, should have been a page turner, but you find yourself almost racing to the next chapter. The book bars no holds in defending "the former Jedburgh's" mindset in his numerous clashes with movers and shakers within the intelligence community. This could be considered a mild partisanship on Woods' part, but in spite of these few complaints, Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA ticks all the boxes of a strong, exhaustively-researched historical biography.
September 21, 2017
Excellent info, very interesting
Great book that will make it easier to make sense of the political turmoil and factions of the fifties, sixties and seventies.
Great book that will make it easier to make sense of the political turmoil and factions of the fifties, sixties and seventies.
June 30, 2013
Interesting book. Colby was a fascinating man. Very quiet, patriotic, and committed. he was tough as nails, had a very pragmatic view of war and conflict. He saw his mission and he completed it as well as could be done. I think he was a bit of a cold fish, but you would have to be to have done his job. The book is formidable in having to learn a lot of acronyms as there were so many different units, agencies, and so forth in the Vietnam conflict. It is easy to get bogged down by this. There is a great history of the US adventure in Vietnam. It is an excellent essay on how not to commingle politics and war planning. I could see so many lessons and conclusions that were ignored by the most recent Bush administration in their adventures in Iraq, I had a bumper sticker on my truck. It read "Irag is Arabic for Vietnam." After this book I absolutely believe it.
April 8, 2013
“. . . anyone interested in either political biographies and/or the recent history of America’s foreign policy [should read] this very interesting and informative book.”
Professor Randall Woods delivers an entertaining and fact-filled biography of William Colby from Office of . . .
Click for complete book review of Shadow Warrior by Randall B. Woods at New York Journal of Books
Professor Randall Woods delivers an entertaining and fact-filled biography of William Colby from Office of . . .
Click for complete book review of Shadow Warrior by Randall B. Woods at New York Journal of Books
September 13, 2013
A very good bio of William Colby, very long but readable for the most part. A warts and all look at Colby's life, with Woods being critical when he should be. There's great stuff here on the CIA in Vietnam during the early sixties and Colby's misguided devotion to the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem.
July 23, 2014
Although, sometimes dry this is a very well academic written story. The story not only of Colby's life, but of the counterinsurgency efforts of Vietnam, as well as the politics that often interferes with the intelligence business.
August 13, 2013
heavily detailed and researched, but dry
October 21, 2014
Loved this book. This biography of William Egan Colby was a real eye opening look at the workings of the CIA.
Read
June 25, 2014great book. great insight into his personality, but there can be no final resolution to
his disappearance.
his disappearance.
June 15, 2013
Great read. A story about unintended consequences of WWII.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews